Some Villain Powers Help?

[Stochastic]

Apologies in advance for the novella.

 

Hello, I've been gaming for a while now, and am not necessarily new to the Hero system per se, I've had the book forever, but we only ran a single campaign of it before the players in my group decided it to be too complex.

 

Well, now I've got a friend who wants to play a superhero game, so we've started up a new campaign - kind of an X-Man rip off in terms of beneficial mutations, though the cosmology is different.

 

Anyways, all bathetic inspiration aside, I've made the world setting (near future, collapse / conversion of the galactic blackhole released all kinds of yet unknown radiation, of which Earth's solar system was spared the destructive brunt, as a result of our somewhat unique galactic orbit), and I've started making the villainous group (with modern political overtones, that I will omit to avoid offending anyone ).

 

Anyways, I've been having trouble trying to pin down how to do the powers of the four main antagonists through the first half of this story. I've lurked around here, hoping perchance to steal someone elses power setup they post if it was similar enough.

 

Allow me to describe what I wanted, what I've tried and why I don't think it works.

 

First is Paul Terris, a PhD in Geology and Minerology, his power is to be able to create powerful sonic waves with the resonances of a variety of heavy to light minerals as well as some sediments. Through focusing and prolonging this act, he can even cause earthquakes where faults already exist or create sinkholes / render land infirm.

 

Okay, so for this power I thought of the following:

 

Seismic Song [45 Points, 18 END to use]

Change Environment, 4" radius [20], -5 DEX or fall [15]. MegaScale (1" = 10km) [+1/2], Indirect (Originate from below) [+3/4] [78 AP]. Concentration (0 DCV, Unaware) [-3/4], Extra-Time (1 Turn) [-1 1/4]. [26 RP]

AND

EB 6d6 [30]. Megascale (1" = 10km) [+1/2], Area of Effect (4") [+1 1/2] Indirect (Originate from below) [+3/4] [112 AP]. Linked (Above, full power) [-3/4], Concentration (0 DCV, Unaware) [-3/4], Limited Power (Only affects structures attached to ground) [-2], Extra-Time (1 Turn) [-1 1/4]. [19 RP]

 

Okay, so I made the change environment to reflect the buckling of the earth, and I added the Energy Blast to simulate the damage buildings would take. But I couldn't / can't find any values for destroying large structures such as that. Is that in some supplement I would need to buy? Secondly, energy blast didn't really seem appropriate to me, it's not like the earth would buckle and then buildings would explode, more I wanted it to reflect the inevitable cracking of foundations in some structures.

 

Okay, so he's supposed to be the main badguy through the first half of the story I'm thinking, then there's his ladyfriend Jai Wun, a member of Chinese Triads until her mutations became more of a liability than an asset. Her mutation allows her to project herself forward and backward (simultaneously) for short periods in time (up to 4 seconds). What my original idea was, was to attempt to use the dimensional travel to allow her to jump between phases, acting as duplicate or even triplicate - then I thought better of it, realizing that combat would become convoluted and annoying. So I decided on duplication as a relatively good facsimile of what I wanted, but I'm stumped as to how to buy off the damage aspect of it. I want the "real" Jai Wun to be able to take damage and be hit normally, but the ones that are travelling forward and backwards along the event not to have any causal relation to the "real" Jai Wun. Like, she can be in a fight, activate this ability and have her projection backwards kick her foe and her projection forward punch her foe, if both projections are killed by gunfire there's no real effect, but if the real Jai Wun is killed or wounded, then the projections would similarly die or be wounded.

 

Chrono-Dance [55 RP]

Duplicate (2 250pt) [55], Easy Recombination (0 Phase) [10], Ranged Recombination [+1/2] [97 AP] Instant Power [-3/4] [55 RP]

 

Is all that I have right now, and as you can see, that doesn't really factor in how much it would cost to move the duplicates from "sibling" to "child". Anyone have any ideas on how this could be performed or simulated?

 

Of the four characters main villainous characters, the third one (Jai Wuns twin brother) was relatively easy, he's a "hydrokinetic" and has some kind of psychic, sympathetic bond with H2O. The only problem I have is that I want him to be able to influence large quantities (can make tsunamis and tidal waves, so megatons worth of energy) but influencing it when it's either dispersed (such as atmospheric) or in small quantities (like the human body) is very difficult or impossible. Megascale appears to only affect distance, not weight otherwise I'd buy him two separate powers and megascale one.

 

Any suggestions on all that? I know its long, and am sorry, just wanted to make sure all the data was there, so as to avoid confusion. Many thanks in advance.

[David Johnston]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

I'd suggest going with a killing attack for the earthquake. Since it only affects buildings and buildings have no STUN, an area effect RKA seems like a more efficient (and easier to count) approach. Now if you look on the object table, you'll find the values for a variety of walls. Destroy the walls of a building, and the building comes tumbling down.

 

For the duplication the answer is actually in the rules under "Feedback", a limitation for Duplication. If injuries to the original also hurt the duplicates, then that's a -1/4 limitation.

 

As for the "Hydrokinetic", well area of effect Telekinesis will move entire hexes of liquid. Weight no longer matters because you are moving each molecule as a separate object. But your Telekinetic strength still determines how hard it can hit.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

I think earthquake guy is fine with either an EB or RKA: an EB simply causes damage, the nature of which is up to you. In fact I'd probably make the whole thing a small RKA: say 1d6, which causes 1-6 BODY, limit it so that it only causes direct damage to structures and rigid objects and buy PENETRATING with an activation limit (so penetrating on 1d6 RKA is 7 points, on 11- is 3 points). What this means is that first off it is mainly buildings that get damaged: 1d6 RKA is enough to make a mess but not knock down most buildings BUT the penetrting will cause structural damage to anything not hardened against earthquakes.

 

As for the time jumper you need wither summon (which is not good as the sumoned take a phse to orient) or just buy a naked autofire (3) advantage on your main atatcks - sfx being 3 attacks from you and 2 duplicates. You can't get around damage to your duplicates hurting you when you recombine or worse if one dies, so duplication is obviously not right here.

 

Tsunami boy - do something similar to earthquake boy but limit it to 'only near large bodies of water?

[David Johnston]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

 

As for the time jumper you need wither summon (which is not good as the sumoned take a phse to orient) or just buy a naked autofire (3) advantage on your main atatcks - sfx being 3 attacks from you and 2 duplicates. You can't get around damage to your duplicates hurting you when you recombine or worse if one dies, so duplication is obviously not right here.

 

 

Or you could just give her "Healing (Regeneration), only for duplicates". That way her duplicates will "heal" as they are replaced by other possible futures.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Or you could just give her "Healing (Regeneration)' date=' only for duplicates". That way her duplicates will "heal" as they are replaced by other possible futures.[/quote']

 

Well the other problem with duplication is that you don't get to take a full action when you duplicate, so the 'multiple attacks in combat' sfx may be difficult to pull off and, even with advantages, you have to be at 1/2 DCV to recombine: recombination is problematic if a dupe is stunned and if one is killed (unlikely but possible) then you are going to have real problems. You might need an awful lot of healing to make a recombination 'as good as new'.

 

If the efefct is really only for use in combat I'd seriously go with the autofire route - afterall what you are doing is just making three attacks. Obviously they all have to be identical and can't be coordinated. You can get round this but it is going to cost you.

 

I think job one is to decide exactly what mechanical effect you want these rather cunning sfx to emulate and go from there.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

First off, I'd like to say those sound like some fairly nifty villains, Stochastic.

 

Second off...

 

Earthquake guy: Looks like you've got a fine build. The rules for damaging building and other innanimate objects can be found in the Breaking Things section of the main rulebook. There you'll find the DEF and BODY of generic walls and other objects as well as guidelines for determining the DEF and BODY of objects based on their material and thickness. The only thing I'd suggest is to change the value of the Limitation on the Only affects structures attached to ground Limitation, which should only be -1/2 (unless for some reason most of the people and building in your world hover).

 

For Chrono Dance Lady, I'd suggest totally skipping the Duplication and just buying a suite of AoE and Autofire and Indirect attack Powers to represent her other selves attacking simultaneously. If you'd like her opponents to falsely attack these other selves, also buy Images (Limited to only produce Images of duplicates of herself) so everyone else will not only see her in several places at once, but believe they can interact with her other selves. The net result is that she attacks from several locations simultaneously but only her true, current self can be harmed/interacted with.

 

The hydrokinetic can be done similarly. By default, TK can affect liquids, so you can just limit it to only affect water specifically. You can also Limit it further by stating a specific weight minimum he must lift for it to work, or else put a Limited Limitation on it so that it has an Activation or Required Skill Roll when he attempts to affect something under a certain mass.

 

As for the attacks, you can, in addition to using TK to throw water at people, just buy Attack Powers for the damage, with an Bulky OIF (large body of water).

 

Also, MegaScale can affect anything measured in Inches. Just like you can by MegaScale for your Change Environment's area, you could also buy it for the range of an EB, or the distance traveled with a Movement Power such as Flight. If you'd like to do massive amounts of damage though, you'll need to buy more dice in the Attack Power, or apply Advantages to it so it applies it's damage more efficiently (such as NND, Does BODY, or Penetrating, or Armor Pierceing, etc.).

[ghost-angel]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

I only have comments on Jai wun ... Like Raven said ... duplication is merely the SFX of what's going on.

 

A "Selective AoE Attack, Only 3 Targets, No Range" easily simulates her ability to be in three places at once and make "attacks" on each on seperately.

 

Images can be used as another way of making it look like there are three of her to attack.

 

The drawbacks are her 3 Selves are limited to the area of the AoE Advantage. But that's not too much of an issue and that she can perform only one type of action with all three (an attack, an entangle, etc...) - or at least all three are limited to making the same kind of attack that phase even if one is a punch and one a kick they're all likelyto be EB or Hand Attack (or whatever).

 

In fact the AoE Selective, No Range, 3 Targets Only could be a common group of Advatnages/Limitations on most of her offensive powers to simulate her doing a variety of things at once.

[Stochastic]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Wow, many thanks. Yall sure know your schtuff.

 

One quick clarification, can I buy the Area of Effect modifier for telekinesis as one person suggested? I'd never thought of it, but in looking I don't know if there'd be anything specifically off limits about that?

 

Also I really like that autofire and Area of Effect thing with Jai Wun, very elegant solution. Thats kind of what I like about this system, is making the characters is like half the game. Anyways, thanks again for the help.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Telekinesis with Area of Effect, see 5ERp231. Short answer: yes.

 

The first thing to remember is sometimes the SFX of what's going on is multiple powers depending on Exactly what's going on. If it's "Jai Wun picks up three different objects" you're using TK most likely, If it's "Jai Wun kicks three of you in the head." you're using AoE Energy Blast. Both of them look like Jai Wun shifts to be in three places at once...

[Lairian]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Just to add to the confusion of the Earthquake villian, you could make a small attack damage wise (KA or EB) with NND Does Body, Defense is earthquake reinforced masonry. This simulates a prolonged quake that will eventually tear apart any building not specifically built to resist earthquakes, so long as the villian can keep the quake going. Modern contruction ignores earthquakes pretty well save superficial damage at best.

 

Problem is, most buildings not on the West Coast aren't built to ignore earthquakes.

 

Unless, of course, the villian is throwing out Richter 8+ earthquakes...

[Threnody]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Jai Wun sounds like Summon to me, less having all three do the same thing is cool with you.

 

I know some GMs got an Adv. that the summoned critter doesn't have to sit dazed for the first phase. Call it about +1/2. That'd solve the biggest prob.

 

Then have the Summon take a Lim the summoned Jai Wuns take damage if the summoning Jai Wun does. Call that about -1.

[gojira]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Just to toss a little more confuzlation in, the Earthmaster in Enemies III had earth powers also. One of his earthquakes made it hard to move, which was represented as 4d6 Entangle, Explosion, increases at 1d6 per phase. Depending on how you want it to work, this might be a better idea than the CE thing.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

One quick clarification, can I buy the Area of Effect modifier for telekinesis as one person suggested? I'd never thought of it, but in looking I don't know if there'd be anything specifically off limits about that?

 

As suggested, with the affecting each molocule seperately, no. AoE TK doesn't work that way. A hex of water would count as a single object and must be within the mass limit of the TK. Otherwise you'd have characters with 1 STR TK (more than enough to lift a single molecule) with AoE and able to lift ANYTHING.

 

However, I'd say that an AoE TK would tread each seperate hex of a larger body of water as individual objects for this particular build and application. So you could buy AoE TK and only need enough STR to lift a single Hex of water. Of course, if you apply MegaScale to the AoE, you'd need enough TK STR to lift whatever water fits into the megahex (which is likely to be a LOT of water).

[David Johnston]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

I'm rusty with Hero, just getting back into it. That's why I've been saying some silly things. I forget that the way to build a power is to look at what it actually does and not what it looks like. So let me try again:

 

In order to represent someone with the power to create tsunamis what you need is an area effect energy blast, (requires a large body of water nearby)

 

To represent flooding an area with water (and keeping it there) that's a Change Environment that can do a one point NND killing attack to people with the defenses being not being air dependant or swimming to the surface.

Once again, dependant on enough water being handy.

 

Additionally, you'll want telekinesis that isn't area effect and doesn't require "large" bodies of water. Proximity to city plumbing will do.

[Stochastic]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Many thanks again, everyone.

 

We play tomorrow, so wish me luck.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Unless' date=' of course, the villian is throwing out Richter 8+ earthquakes...[/quote']

Any volunteers to do the math on converting Richter Scale quakes to d6 of effect?

 

We play tomorrow' date=' so wish me luck.[/quote']

Luck! Let us know how it goes.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Eh... well an Earthquake is going to deal STUN to anyone too close to it, and it should be dealing BODY to the masonry and surrounding structures, and if the dude is smart enough to not try and hit Cali, that's what matters. Question is can he focus enough to bring down a bridge or other critical structure?

 

Welcome to the boards, Stochastic. The last bastian of sanity on the 'net. Other than the gunfire, but you get past that eventually. I will NOT be your host, I'm just off converting HALO to HERO and it's all I talk about. But I've been building powers lately. One of the major that David mentioned, which I must reinforce, is this:

 

Reason backwards from effect. He brings down buildings. Good! Doesn't matter what it looks like, that's up to you. And how it looks is where you derive most of your limitations from (which make things cheaper, and cheaper is good). For example: must be touching the ground. Makes sense! it's an Earthquake!

 

Jai Wun: Ghost/Dust/Some Angel covered this as I would have suggested it, actually - Images (so people have targets) PLUS (HAs/HKAs, w/Autofire). And then anything else you want her to have. If you do not have a copy of Ultimate Martial Artist, please buy one immediately. It's an invaluable resource and one of the few splat books that I consider a 'must have.' I have most of 'em anyway, because that's how I get down, but not having UMA is doing yourself a disservice.

 

Generating a Typhoon is as described above - you're doing a Weather Effect with custom limitations that is a TK combined with a minor HA/EB/RKA depending on how you want to work it. The big part is the TK, near as I can figure.

 

Otherwise I'm late to the party. Good luck with your game.

[Stochastic]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Hey, just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the help. The game went off very well, and I'm planning out another storyline. These four villains aren't dead, but are hiding somewhere in Thailand for the time being. So, I've been reading up on how different comic book storylines progress and have been considering how best to serialize my stories. I don't think I could pull off some of the more outlandish stuff I read about the varying comic series; Multiple dimensional hops seemingly out of the blue, cosmic entities, invading aliens, et cetera... But the genre seems to have some give and take; some hero's live in grittier, more realistic worlds than others.

 

At any rate, many thanks for all the help!

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

As suggested, with the affecting each molocule seperately, no. AoE TK doesn't work that way. A hex of water would count as a single object and must be within the mass limit of the TK. Otherwise you'd have characters with 1 STR TK (more than enough to lift a single molecule) with AoE and able to lift ANYTHING.

 

However, I'd say that an AoE TK would tread each seperate hex of a larger body of water as individual objects for this particular build and application. So you could buy AoE TK and only need enough STR to lift a single Hex of water. Of course, if you apply MegaScale to the AoE, you'd need enough TK STR to lift whatever water fits into the megahex (which is likely to be a LOT of water).

 

Well, according to Steve Long, not as the default rule: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4429

[Dust Raven]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Well' date=' according to Steve Long, not as the default rule: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4429

 

While he didn't cover the effects of adding Megascale, it looks like everything I said agrees with his answer. Unless I'm grossly missunderstanding something.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

While he didn't cover the effects of adding Megascale' date=' it looks like everything I said agrees with his answer. Unless I'm grossly missunderstanding something.[/quote']

I read Steve's answer to mean that the TK's STR is the total weight you can lift, not the by-hex weight you can lift. In other words, if you have 20 STR, with a 8 hex AOE, you can lift a total of 400 kg of water spread over up to 8 hexes. I thought your suggestion was that you could lift 8 hexes of water, each weighing up to 400 kg?

[Dust Raven]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

I read Steve's answer to mean that the TK's STR is the total weight you can lift' date=' not the by-hex weight you can lift. In other words, if you have 20 STR, with a 8 hex AOE, you can lift a total of 400 kg of water spread over up to 8 hexes. I thought your suggestion was that you could lift 8 hexes of water, [u']each[/u] weighing up to 400 kg?

 

Yes, that's what I meant, and also how I read Steve's answer. Reading it, perhaps I'm wrong about what he meant. If he did mean something else, he's wrong. . Really, if you make an AoE EB, you don't spread the damage around evenly among targets in the area, each are affected equally, and if you just want to damage the ground, each damage applies full to each hex. It makes sense the same happens when you use TK. Otherwise AoE is worthless for TK.

[pinecone]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Just to add to the confusion of the Earthquake villian, you could make a small attack damage wise (KA or EB) with NND Does Body, Defense is earthquake reinforced masonry. This simulates a prolonged quake that will eventually tear apart any building not specifically built to resist earthquakes, so long as the villian can keep the quake going. Modern contruction ignores earthquakes pretty well save superficial damage at best.

 

Problem is, most buildings not on the West Coast aren't built to ignore earthquakes.

 

Unless, of course, the villian is throwing out Richter 8+ earthquakes...

Not a bad idea, either a NND or a PEN RKA...if you want to devistate regions, look at Cumlative, Transform:Earthquake damage.....but just plain old doing body is likely enough, the rest is just special effects.....

[pinecone]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Yes' date=' that's what I meant, and also how I read Steve's answer. Reading it, perhaps I'm wrong about what he meant. If he did mean something else, he's wrong. . Really, if you make an AoE EB, you don't spread the damage around evenly among targets in the area, each are affected equally, and if you just want to damage the ground, each damage applies full to each hex. It makes sense the same happens when you use TK. Otherwise AoE is worthless for TK.[/quote']

Thats the way I do it too...I guess we need a interp on the interp.....and then we can argue about That interp...

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Some Villain Powers Help?

 

Yes' date=' that's what I meant, and also how I read Steve's answer. Reading it, perhaps I'm wrong about what he meant. If he did mean something else, he's wrong. . Really, if you make an AoE EB, you don't spread the damage around evenly among targets in the area, each are affected equally, and if you just want to damage the ground, each damage applies full to each hex. It makes sense the same happens when you use TK. Otherwise AoE is worthless for TK.[/quote']

Well, not worthless. If I can 15 STR TK without AoE, I can lift one heavy guy, but NOT two or more light guys. But you've got a good point about the EB. Hmm... Darn it, now you got my brain working again!